Writers Offer Diverse Opinions About Happiness

“Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

“A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of.” ~ Jane Austen

“Happiness can exist only in acceptance.” ~ George Orwell

“To forget oneself is to be happy.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

It’s obvious that happiness means different things to different people; so rather than say a character is happy, writers can provide context explaining why. This post will help.

Emotion Beats and Physical Manifestations

Happiness can be revealed by simple body language such as the following.

• animated voice and dialogue
• both hands placed over one’s chest
• bouncing on one’s toes
• breathy giggles
• clear skin (long-term happiness)
• dancing shoulders and pumping fists
• deep, relaxed breathing
• enthusiastic handshakes (less common nowadays with fears of disease transmission; offered handshakes could result in confusion, avoidance, or disgust; try an air high-five if appropriate)
• glowing face
• holding one’s head high
• jumping up and down
• keeping one’s shoulders back
• maintaining open body language with one’s arms and legs uncrossed
• making a heart sign with one’s fingers
• pointing one’s toes upward
• raising one’s arms, perhaps in prayer
• relaxed drumming of fingers against one leg
• strong posture
• swinging arms while one is walking
• taking a wide stance and making expansive gestures with one’s arms and hands
• tears of joy flowing down one’s face
• tranquil brow free of frown lines
• twinkling eyes
• walking with a bounce in one’s step
• wrinkles (laugh lines) in the corners of one’s eyes

If you need additional beats, consult a body language dictionary. (As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Adjectives

The following descriptors can replace happy as is, and function well in short fiction where word count is limited.

However, show the happiness of characters whenever possible.

Instead of:

Geraldine was delighted with the flowers from her son.

Try something like this:

Geraldine smiled and gave her son a huge hug when he handed her the flowers.

A to F
amused, at ease, beatific, blissful, blithe, boisterous, breezy, bright, bubbling, buoyant, carefree, cheerful, cheery, chirpy, comfortable, content, contented, delighted, delirious, ebullient, ecstatic, effervescent, elated, enraptured, euphoric, exhilarated, exuberant, exultant, fun-loving

G to U
gay (provide context), glad, gladdened, gleeful, glowing, good-humored, gratified, heartened, high-spirited, jaunty, jocose, jocular, jocund, jolly, jovial, joyful, joyous, jubilant, lighthearted, lively, merry, mirthful, optimistic, overjoyed, perky, pleased, positive, radiant, rapturous, sanguine, satisfied, sparkling, sunny, thrilled, untroubled, upbeat

Similes and Metaphors

Try these idea starters to inspire new figures of speech:

• a flaming brand of pure joy
• a smiling inspiration
• a sunbeam filling everyone with hope on the darkest of days
• beaming like a personal assistant when the boss is on holiday
• bubbly as a bottle of champagne
• bursting with joy, like an engorged leech
• celebrating like an attorney who has just won a case
• delighted as an arsonist watching a bonfire
• ecstatic as the scientist who developed a cure for [_____]
• elated as a mega lottery winner
• glowing like the morning sun
• grinning like a dog eating real bacon, not that artificial crap
• humming like a bee who has just discovered a flower garden
• leaping like [a type of athlete] who has just [accomplishment]
• nodding like an overinsured owner watching the [business, house] go up in flames
• trilling like a robin after devouring a juicy worm

Colors

Clichés such as in the pink show a person’s emotional state with color. You can do the same with clothing and environment. In addition to pink, colors that might indicate a happy character include yellows, oranges, and reds, although they might also signal danger. Provide appropriate context.

See 1000+ Ways to Describe Colors for more options.

Scents

Try aromas that emanate from objects in this list, remembering that your characters might react negatively to them. For instance, if someone gets sick on churros while visiting Disneyland, they might be repelled, not happy, when they smell churros or cinnamon.

A to F
anise, baby oil, baby powder, baby’s [belly, fingers, neck], bacon, bakery, barbecue, baseball glove, basil, books, brisket, butterscotch, campfire, candy floss, caramel, carnations, cedar, cheese (mention what kind of cheese), cherry blossoms, chocolate, churros, cilantro, cinnamon, citrus, clover, coconut, coffee, crabapple blossoms, crayons, doughnuts, fast food [hamburger, hot dog, hot apple pie], fish and chips, forest, fresh air, freshly baked bread, freshly made bed, freshly mown grass, fried chicken, fruit cake

G to W
garden soil, gingerbread, Grandma’s kitchen, grapes, honey, honey-garlic spareribs, honeysuckle, horse, jasmine, lavender, leather saddle, lemons, licorice, marzipan, matches, money, new car, new shoes, new shower curtain, Nutella, peppermint, pillow of [baby, significant other], pine, popcorn, rain, roses, scented candles (mention specific scent), seaside, spearmint, steak, strawberries, sun-dried sheets, tacos, toast, tropical rainstorm, vanilla, wet wood, wine, woodsmoke

The Versatility of Verbs and Phrasal Verbs

A few verbs that might show a character’s happiness include:

A to Y
air-kiss, beam, bounce, bubble, cackle, caper, cavort, celebrate, chortle, chuckle, dance, embrace, fondle, frolic, gambol, giggle, glow (with), grin, guffaw, high-five, hoot, hop, hug, hum, jest, joke, laugh, leap, make merry, nod, nuzzle, party, pirouette, prance, rejoice, revel, romp, sing, skip, smile, snicker, snigger, text [happy emojis, jokes], titter, trill, twitter, warble, whistle, wink, yodel

Nouns

The noun happiness has many synonyms. Amusement or cheeriness could indicate a medium level of happiness, while nouns such as euphoria and rapture would be appropriate for extreme emotion.

A to G
amusement, animation, bliss, bounciness, breeziness, brightness, buoyancy, cheerfulness, cheeriness, chirpiness, contentment, delectation, delight, delirium, ebullience, ecstasy, effervescence, elation, enjoyment, enthusiasm, euphoria, exhilaration, exuberance, felicity, gaiety, gladness, good cheer, good humor, good spirits, gratification

H to W
high spirits, hilarity, jauntiness, jocosity, jocularity, jocundity, jolliness, jollity, jouissance, joviality, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, jubilance, jubilation, laughter, levity, lightheartedness, liveliness, merriment, merriness, mirth, optimism, perkiness, pleasure, positivity, radiance, rapture, rejoicing, satisfaction, sparkle, sunniness, vivaciousness, wellbeing

Props

What fills you with happiness? a delicious meal? a guitar? country-and-western music? romance?

Decide what delights your characters, and include appropriate props.

How about one of these?

B to D
baby, brisk walk, bubblebath, bubblegum, bubblewrap, cat, chocolate, coffee, comedy series on TV, computer game, country-and-western music, delicious meal, discovery of a new element (scientist), discovery of a new planet (astronomer), dog

E to M
escape-room mystery, exercising, family reunion, five-star book review, giving a gift, good book, good news about a health crisis, good night’s sleep, guitar, hiking, hobby, holding hands, hugging, kissing, kitten, marathon, money, mountain climbing

N to V
new car, new hairstyle, next victim (incompetent surgeon, serial killer, vampire), opera music, parrot, practical joke, pregnancy, prom, publishing contract, receiving a gift, romance, saving a life, ski vacation, standup comedy, sunset, surprise visitors, video game

Clichés and Idioms (1)

This group of phrases doesn’t include the word happy, but it embodies various levels of happiness. In good spirits suggests a moderate level (cheerful or heartened, perhaps), whereas jumping for joy paints the picture of someone who might be better labelled as ecstatic or euphoric.

Whenever possible, try to replace clichés and idioms like these. Opt instead for emotion beats or adjectives that convey the mood you need for each character.

• beside oneself with joy
• blissed out
• bright and breezy
• doing handsprings
• free from care
• full of beans
• in a good mood
• in good spirits
• in high spirits
• in seventh heaven
• in the pink
• jumping for joy
• like a dog with two tails
• on cloud nine
• on top of the world
• over the moon
• pleased as punch
• shouting for joy
• tickled pink
• tickled to death
• walking on air
• without a care in the world

Clichés and Idioms (2)

These phrases do include the word happy and can lead to its overuse.

• happy as a clam
• happy as a lark
• happy as a pig in clover
• happy as a pig in the mud
• happy as can be
• happy as the day is long

These and similar phrases could be replaced with adjectives such as:

D to T
delighted, ecstatic, elated, euphoric, jubilant, overjoyed, thrilled

Clichés and Idioms (3)

Here are a few more phrases. In most cases, these could be replaced with single words.

• fat and happy: bursting, gorged, sated, satisfied, stuffed
• happy accident: break, coincidence (fortunate), fortuity, luck (good), opportunity, providence
• happy-go-lucky: carefree, casual, easygoing, lighthearted
• happy hunting ground: afterlife, hereafter, heaven, nirvana, utopia
• happy juice: alcohol, booze, cocktail, liquor, moonshine, spirits
• happy medium: agreement, compromise, middle ground
• happy pill: antidepressant, narcotic, opiate, tranquilizer
• happy returns: cheer, commendation, encouragement, praise
• happy warrior: advocate, champion, crusader, supporter
• none too happy: annoyed, disappointed, displeased
• slap-happy: carefree, casual, cheerful, easygoing, nonchalant
• to be happy to do something: eager, enthusiastic, keen, willing
• trigger-happy: dangerous, militant, scrappy, unpredictable, violent